Dean was passed out on the couch when Sam got up, as if he'd been too tired to continue his journey down the hall to his bedroom; and the sight of him, so deeply asleep with his boots and apron still on, one arm dangling off the side, made Sam absolutely miserable. Dean worked too damn hard.

He bit his lip, glanced at the clock, and sighed. Leaning over the back of the couch, he touched Dean's arm. "Dean- hey, bro, it's a little after seven." His brother came out of it slowly, eyes peeling open over exhausted green, and Sam smiled warmly at him. "Mornin' lazybones. Want me to make you coffee?"

"Wh... Yeah, that'd be..." His older brother sat up, looking ruffled and confused the way he always did after what was probably only three+ hours of sleep. "That'd be awesome, Sammy. Adam up yet?"

Sam accepted the hair-ruffle Dean gave him dutifully, and winced for his brother's sake at the sound his back made when he stretched. "'Course he isn't."

"Little shit," Dean said fondly, and went to get him. Sam set up three bowls and dumped cereal in each, pouring two mugs of coffee and one glass of orange juice, arranging them all in front of the appropriate seats at the kitchen island. When Dean came back in with a dozing Adam in one arm, he grinned gratefully.

It wasn't much, but any little thing Sam could do to help out, he would. "Come on, Adam," he said, handing his little brother a spoon when Dean plopped him in his seat. "You gotta eat and get dressed, man."

Adam stuck his tongue out, but did as he was told, sneaking glances at Dean, and Sam bit the inside of his lip, thinking, Okay, if Adam's noticed, then Dean really does look as bad as I thought.

"Hey, Dean, what time did you get off last night?" Sam asked casually, nodding to his apron, and Dean groaned theatrically.

"Ugh, Sammy, it was bad. The new chick flaked out- on her third day. Ellen was pi- mad as he-ck." Sam's lips quirked and Adam full out grinned. "Shut up. Anyway, Jo had a test today, so I covered it."

Sam couldn't help how disapproving his "Dean," came out, and from the looks of it, Dean was expecting it anyway, and had a counter prepared. "School's important," he said, "s'why I get on your asses about studying as much as I do."

"You said 'asses'," Adam piped up helpfully, and Sam smiled when Dean grabbed him and ruffled his hair all to shit, but didn't let it go at that.

"You're important, too, Dean," he said softly, and didn't miss the way his big brother's expression stuttered for a minute, or how his tired eyes cut away almost at once.

He dropped Sam off first, as usual, and Sam didn't care how it made him look in front of his peers, he always turned to lean in and say some variation of, "Adam, have fun at school, and be safe at work, Dean." Because life had taught the three of them a cruel lesson very early on, and they each knew in their bones that good things only happened to other people, and the ones you loved were the ones that god took first.

So, following in that pattern, Sam was convinced that Dean was going to work himself into the ground- and if he asked, if he asked anyone, Bobby, Benny or Garth at the auto shop, Ellen, Jo or Ash at the Roadhouse, they would help him, because he was twenty-one years old and charming and wonderful and raising two little brothers and working two jobs and taking classes online and they could see how tired he was, they had to see that-

But Dean would never ask, because it had been just him for so long he'd probably forgotten how to. So he would work and work, and Sam would leave for college, and he'd work and work, and Adam would leave too- and then Dean would have two jobs and two empty bedrooms, and nothing left to work for, and Sam hated the thought of someone like Dean, who deserved so much more than the life he had, floundering in the world like he didn't have a place in it, too tired and wasted to find someone new to live for.

So when Adam came home with A+ papers, and Dean with circles like bruises under his eyes, Sam smiled at one and soothed the other and prayed every night for somebody to come along and save his brother from himself.

Anybody. Please, God.

Just- please.